Everyone needs a family
by Trillian Astra
Summary: Summary: Jack helps Claire get Aaron to sleep, and they discover that they have a connection that neither of them ever suspected... canon as of Par Avion in season three!


Claire was startled awake by Aaron crying in his crib, and realised that she had fallen asleep in the sun. She gently picked up her son, rocking him to get him back to sleep. "There, there darling. What's wrong?"

She checked Aaron's nappy, but it was clean, and he had only been fed a little while ago. She kept rocking him and talking to him and singing little bits of lullabyes, but he jutst wouldn't settle. She got Sawyer to talk to him for a while, knowing that his Southern accent soothed Aaron sometimes, but even Sawyer couldn't get him to sleep.

Jack emerged from the jungle as she got back to her shelter, and when he heard the baby's cries he hurried over. "Claire? Is Aaron all right?"

"Not really, Jack. I can't get him to settle. His nappy's empty, I've just fed him, even Sawyer couldn't get him to sleep."

"Let me have a look."

Jack gently examined the baby, and checked his temperature with by touching the baby's forehead with the back of his hand. "Yeah, I thought so. He's just too hot, that's all. It's the pacific climate, you know."

"Is there anything I can do?"

"Do you have a rag or a cloth or something?"

"Sure." Claire handed Jack an old scrap of blanket. "Will this do?"

"Perfect." Jack soaked the cloth in water from one of his waterbottles, squeezed it out quickly, and used it to cool Aaron down by dabbing his forehead and chest. "That ought to cool him down, just keep doing it if he starts to feel very warm again."

"Thanks Jack."

"No problem."

Claire picked up Aaron and put him back in his crib, where he promptly fell asleep again. When she turned back towards the beach, she saw that Jack was sitting on the sand in front of her. "Why are you still here?"

"You look exhausted, Claire. Are you okay?"

"Of course I am. I'm fine."

"Well, you don't look it. You know you can ask for help. You're not alone here."

"You think I don't know that? Everyone is so… so nice to me. No-one complains if Aaron wakes them up at night. No-one complains if they have to baby-sit."

"And you think that someone ought to be complaining? Because if that's what you want, I could have a word with Sawyer." he joked.

"No, it's okay. But, all my life I've had to do things for myself. I haven't been able to rely on anyone before, not properly. It's just going to take a while for me to get used to having so many supportive friends around me."

"I understand. As long as you know that we're here for you, that's fine. But before the crash, didn't you have any family to help you out?"

"No, not really. It was always just me and my mum. I never met my dad. He and Mum didn't get married. So no brothers or sisters, no aunts and uncles and cousins. And I haven't seen my mum since before I got pregnant, either. She didn't approve of Thomas."

"That's a shame. Didn't you ever try to find your father?"

"When I was in high school, I thought about it. Mum told me a bit about him. I know he was American, and a doctor, and he came from Los Angeles. Actually, she gave me an old photo she had of him, I think it's in my diary." Claire picked up the little blue notebook that she used as a journal, and flicked through the pages. She found the rather old, faded photo. "Here it is. This is the only picture of him that I have. I wish I'd known him. I wish Aaron knew his grandpa. Do you want to look?" She said, holding the picture out to him.

"Uh, okay." Jack took the picture. He looked at it, then went very still and just stared at the picture.

"Jack? Jack, are you okay?"

Jack nodded weakly "Yeah. Claire… did your mum tell you his name?"

"Of course she did. Christian. His name was Christian…. Jack? did I say something wrong?"

"No, of course you didn't. You didn't know…"

"Didn't know what, Jack? You're kind of scaring me here."

"Sorry, Claire. This man, Christian the doctor from Los Angeles. His full name is Christian Shepard, he was an alcoholic and got struck off, and he died in Sydney just before we all got on the plane."

"How do you know that?" Slowly, realisation dawned on Claire's face. "Ohhhhhh. Christian _Shepard_. He was…"

"Yeah. He was _my_ father."

"So… that would make us… brother and sister."

"I suppose so."

"And Aaron has an uncle, now."

"Yeah."

Claire saw that Jack was shaken by this discovery, and tried to comfort him.

"I'm sorry, Jack."

"What for?"

"For whatever happened between you and your… our father."

"And I'm sorry that you never got to meet him."

The newly-discovered brother and sister sat on the beach together, comforting each other and thinking about the man who was the link between them.


End file.
